I'll give you all those things you list. Still not one of those points gives one any reason to believe we've been visited by beings from other worlds.

Someday we may discover that there truly is an Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Nobody has ever looked in all corners of the universe to see if maybe they're hiding there so under your logic and the fact that millions of children throughout history have sworn that Santa brought things to them on Christmas morning and that giant bunnies brought them Easter eggs, we should simply allow that they could be real. After all perhaps our limited knowledge of physics keeps us from understanding the dynamics of how a single man on a sleigh pulled by 8 tiny antlered animals can traverse the entire world while suspending time and be sucked down tiny chimneys.

I'm afraid Lindy that the physics you speak of falls into that same category in my mind as the magic of so many other unproven beliefs. It clearly falls into that area that Sagan spoke up requiring overwhelming evidence to even be considered.

All that said, I firmly believe, based on my own understanding of how life evolved on our planet, that the universe is teeming with life and that it's likely there are advanced civilizations somewhere. It's unprovable though, no more than a hunch and unverifiable by standard scientific method. All one can do is apply probability equations to estimate likelihood.

Believe me I want us to be visited by advanced beings as long as their intent wasn't looking on us as a food source. In all probability, were they here, they could be great help in ridding us of evil and greedy people and show us where we need to aim for in our societal evolution. It would also blow most major religions out of the water something you know I'd be very happy about. However, I can't base my views on this subject on wishful thinking no matter how many seemingly credible people swear they've seen something extraordinary. As ER so wisely stated there are just too many factors in the human psyche that allow the mind to add details and distortions to events. Then add in the celebrity draw folks have for lying about what they see and getting their 15 minutes of fame and you have exactly what we're seeing today.

I know you have a different take and I respect you for what you believe. Hope you're right actually.

Art